Schools Matter: Indiana, Personalized Learning, Smart Drugs, and the KnowledgeWorks Foundation

Schools Matter: Indiana, Personalized Learning, Smart Drugs, and the KnowledgeWorks Foundation:

Indiana, Personalized Learning, Smart Drugs, and the KnowledgeWorks Foundation

By Doug Martin 

(for a background on what edtech is up to, please see Alison McDowell’s post here—and all of her posts.  If you want to witness the frightening scenario many like the KnowledgeWorks Foundation have in mind for American education and the workforce, watch this video.)  

Although I’m deep into writing a new book on ed tech to follow Hoosier School Heist and haven’t blogged for a while, I want to take the time to warn Hoosiers about so-called “personalized learning” (also referred to as competency-based learning) not only because of the absurd idea to use online learning to teach pre-schoolers here, but also because Robert Behning’s House Bill 1386 offers a personalized learning pilot program. Thankfully, Bill 1386  died recently in a House Education Committee vote of 8-3, but don’t expect the personalized learning movement to go away, which is not just about using technology in the classroom, which, done well, can be a good thing.  People need to understand what is lurching inside this movement, which is now a major national force.

THE EDTECH FUTURISTS AT THE STATEHOUSE

Speaking edtech and corporate school reform clichés, the KnowledgeWorks Foundation’s Matt Williamstestified in favor of Behning’s personalized learning bill before the Indiana House Education Committee in February, stressing the need for Indiana to become “a leader” nationally by creating a personalized learning system where “formative assessments ….measure student mastery of academic knowledge and social and emotional competencies”  and students “master the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in college and career,” which is “an essential step” for “our country’s education system.”

Personalized or competency-based learning glues students to computers, allows students to learn at their own pace, and sometimes even does away with grade levels altogether.  But, as even the Gates Foundation-funded iNACOL(International Association for K12 Online Learning), which promotes ALEC’s online learning model legislation, has publicly admitted, this is a Trojan Horse for more harmful things the billionaires have in mind.

To promote the online learning agenda, the Ohio-based KnowledgeWorks paints futuristic scenarios focusing on training workers for the gig economy via online personalized learning (K-university level) in the event that tech titans’ dreams will be eventually fulfilled when one day students will no longer go to real buildings or real jobs, since all education will be done online merely for credentials, and job gigs (like Fiverr, TaskRabbit, the Global Survey Group, etc.) will be done online to earn literally a couple of dollars (yes, literally) an hour, since these will be the only jobs left because of the quick expansion of technology (for an excellent outing of Schools Matter: Indiana, Personalized Learning, Smart Drugs, and the KnowledgeWorks Foundation: